Course Overview Note: Implementing Urban Economic Development

Abstract

This course described in this note provides a guide to implementing urban economic development at the local and regional level. This course is based on the assumption that, effective implementation of urban and regional economic development requires an entrepreneurial approach. Development is entrepreneurial in the sense that, from the point of view of an urban official, most of the big picture policy levers will probably be set exogenously. (For example, Federal income tax rates, immigration policy, and much else are set by the US Government, and a local official has little room to directly change these policies.) So, a local economic development official must understand the goals of the community and its overall economic environment, and imaginatively use the available tools to create public value. Among the issues commonly facing urban development professionals are: persistent racial inequality, rising income inequality, climate change, hollowing out of middle class jobs, and so on. Hence, the course’s focus is on tools available to state and city leaders (without dramatic changes in legislation) to drive economic development at the regional and urban levels. Finally, this is a case study course on the implementation of policy – it’s not a course on urban economic theory, nor is it a course on what Federal policy should be towards urban areas – though to some extent both of these topics are touched on. At Princeton, this is taught as a semester long graduate course of twenty-four 80 minute sessions. If you are a faculty member and would like a copy of the full syllabus for the current version of this course, please e-mail me from your university account.